To present the other side of it... unfortunately, sometimes mediums can be a "liability." For example, there are times when I drop in my HBK's or SHD's, where the team seems to be doing well in terms of positioning, early kills, ect.; we start to lose about halfway through the match. The reason we lost steam becomes obvious when you look at the after-match screen, and see a tonnage difference of 100 tons or more. All things equal, a heavier mech has more killing power than a lighter mech. All things equal, a heavier mech can absorb more damage than a lighter mech. In a game where every game mode can be a death match, this matters. In anycase, mediums are suppose to exist in an environment where all things are not equal, and there are resource considerations limiting what can be deployed. In that environment, the middle-ground between a light and an heavy mech has its place. Hopefully, tonnage limits will be the resource that balances things out. For me anyway, I find my mediums are more functional in matches where the team doesn't collapse due to weight differences. That's when I can pull of those 600+ damage games. Just because I can do top match-damage in my SHD-2H, firing every auto cannon round I got; doesn't mean that the middle-ish score AS7-D-DC didn't make it possible. One can be the best shot, be very maneuverable, and have good instincts when it comes to reading the flow of the game, ect; but, one can only have so much armor, and one can only carry so much in terms of weapon systems. This is a team game. And, if your team is falling apart, that limits where you can move. While I never was told that I was a liability while piloting one of my medium mechs, sometime I do feel like the team would have been better off if I showed up in something heavier.

Mediums are certainly not worthless, but in the current state of the game I find that they are sub-optimal. Which kinda sucks.

While I have never had this personally I recently had someone mocking my Wolverine build (AC5, SRM6/artemis and a medium pulse), match ended I had 3 kills and 700 damage, they had 150 odd damage. I left the match with a 'I'm sorry for making you look terrible" and feeling very smug.

That is a crazy buld though! Very unique well done. Glad you can make it work also.

1) morons
2) central controllers who will always attempt to ebb their soul-shattering fear of life and all its myriad variations and infinite creativity by blaming all failure that affects them (the sense of which pretty much consumes them) upon the choices and actions of others AND THEN attempt voraciously to control others. Some masquerade this as communally beneficial, which camouflages their desire for power, which in turn masks the terror that forever claws at their psyche

The people telling you not to take mediums are mostly type 1. Type 2, unfortunately, are mostly too busy in their day job as politicians.

Mediums can be hard to play, and a few of them are rather poor (Trenchbucket!) but that can be said of various mechs in all classes, and, quite frankly, no mech is a liability to the team if the pilot knows what he's doing. I've done fine in "top tier" mechs - and fine in "weak" mechs. Yeah, the weak mechs require more skill, but they can perform, too.

So, don't let them get to you. They should be ashamed for trying to chase people out of the game.

That is a crazy buld though! Very unique well done. Glad you can make it work also.

Aye its strange, my first 'Mech in tabletop was the Wolvie and was so excited when I learnt it was coming to MW:O, but proceeded to get frustrated as I couldn't find a build that worked for it. However the one I have sunk least time changing I have had the most success with. Dont get me wrong if I get caught out by a cheesebuild it hurts, but overall it is fun.

Mediums are the workhorse of the mech classes, chase lights, battle other mediums and support your heavies and assaults. Makes for some exciting gameplay, at a much different pace then the other classes!

Mediums suck if you don't know what you're doing, and they suck worse than any other class because they lack the armor of heavier mechs and the elusiveness of lighter ones. It also didn't help that the medium classes included the Trebuchet and (incorrectly) the Dragon, the two least-used mechs in the game.

That said, someone with some practice in a medium can quickly become just as effective as a brawler, and the skillful use of mediums can easily tip a match in their team's favor.

Plus, the reputation of mediums being sucky choices is a month outdated, since PGI has boosted the medium class with three pretty good chassis. Wolverines, Griffins, and Shadowhawks all seem pretty fun for people.

THIS THREAD IS ALSO A STRONG INDICATOR THAT TONNAGE LIMITS DO NOT NEED TO BE INCLUDED IN THE MATCHMAKER. Judgment on that always needed to be reserved until they incentivized the medium class in some way. Chicken and egg folks, chicken and egg.

the biggest problem with mediums is that they are kind of a jack of all trades weight class. so there's no one aspect of the game where someone says "oh yeah we need a medium for this" so people feel that because of this they are "worthless". they can scout some, scout hunt some, work well in a support role, are decent finishers when something's been damaged, the only thing they can't do at all is be the front line leading the charge damage sponges.

but some people look at it and say "well if i need to support i'm better off using a heavy." then they get light swarmed because they can't react fast enough. or "If i'm scouting i'll use a light" then die after they get legged with an alpha from a heavy.

sure if you're looking to just play one role there may be other mechs suited to that particular style. but unless you're in a premade you never know what you're going to be dropping with. that medium could be the fastest mech on the drop so now they can play scout. or you're assault heavy and a medium takes the heavy's role in supporting one. mediums i feel offer more felxibility at what to do with them instead of being the "X" mech.

personally i do better in my mediums than any of my other mechs. yeah there's a smaller margin of error than with the other weight classes but other than the super-elite-ultra-high-level premade team play that mosty of us won't see probably, a medium is fine.

I am glad I found this thread, especially since I almost always drive heavies and mediums. I only read the first post of this thread, but here is my take on mediums. Medium 'Mechs are the workhorses of the battle field. They are a well balanced platform of speed, armor and firepower and in the right hands, can be very devastating. Some of the best wolf packs consist of medium 'Mechs. Here is just one example of which:

A full lance of only medium 'Mechs with 10 kills and the highest damage of any lance in the match, yet barely weighing in at over 200 tons collectively. I witnessed a PUG say "Ton the f*ck up", so I had to post my two cents.

Mediums can be good but, generally that means it's because of a good pilot. That good pilot would probably do even better in something more suited to that role he is playing. More guns, more speed, more armor, more heatsinks etc.

That being said it is still fun to do something like this with 9 small lasers in a hunchback:

The kind message was from a Phract I shredded with my 9 smalls on alpine.

After the TBT-7M I played most games in the AWS-9M. Even back in the days before the hitbox adjustments.
I know what an uphill struggle it can be to make old Marik stand-bys work. But someone has to do it.

For my part, I changed in the medium class by buying a Cicada first (which was not a very successful experiment) and a Blackjack lately. I can tell that it's really demanding (not fast as a light but not armored as a heavy). But if you get used to it, it should be a very dangerous mech in the match. As for me it's the mech with the most kills of all (more than my Spider-5K!).

Medium mechs are awesome and I love the way to explore them right now.

When I was in my Hunchbacks, no. But when I brought out trials... Once someone told me to **** in my team just from bringing the Centurion Champ trial (long time ago), then I scored 4 kills. Those were the only kills my team got. Just saying, mediums are awesome, but Pugland is Pugland. Can't do much about that.